Many golfers use the facilities at golf ball driving ranges to practice their driving. Typically this may involve renting a bucket full of balls which are driven one by one onto the driving range. After driving each ball, the golfer must bend over, take a golf ball out of the bucket and place it on a tee. This operation is repeated until the whole bucket full of balls, which may typically number 50 to 100 balls, is emptied. As a result, the golfer must bend down 50 to 100 times depending upon the number of golf balls he has hired.
For people with bad backs, the continuous bending associated with setting up a large number of golf balls on a tee can be quite painful. Even if the golfer does not have a bad back, the time spent bending over and placing the ball is generally not considered to be enjoyable. Given that the purpose of golf is to relax and enjoy oneself, the removal of the requirement to bend down and replace each ball on a tee at a driving range should enhance the enjoyable nature of the experience.
With this purpose in mind, various approaches have been devised for automatically setting up golf balls on a golf tee. However, they all suffer from one or more disadvantages. For example, they may include mechanisms which are relatively complex in operation. As a result their cost of manufacture, which is generally related to the degree of complexity, can be high.
Some mechanisms in operation appear to suffer from a lack of reliability in relation to the accurate placement of a ball on a tee over long periods of time.
Some mechanisms require electrical power to drive the operation of the mechanism. Apart from requiring costly electrical machinery and wiring on the golf driving range, such mechanisms are unworkable at times when there is an interruption of electrical power. Furthermore, because they are generally in a location which is unprotected from the weather, particular care needs to be taken to ensure the safety of a golfer by protecting and insulating the electrical components.
The present invention seeks to obviate or minimize one or more of the aforesaid disadvantages.